Administrator

Of the many amendments made to multiple Acts through this Money Bill, which was passed on Wednesday in the Lok Sabha, the amendment to section 132 of the Income Tax Act empowers the taxman to not disclose to any person or even an Appellate Tribunal as to why a raid is conducted.
Moreover, this section can be applied retrospectively from 1962 onwards, i.e., assessment can be done for persons raided from April 1, 1962.
And property can be confiscated from persons from April 1, 1975 onwards. Income Tax officials can also attach properties of any person that they choose to raid. All the official has to do, according to The Finance Bill, is give in writing that he is “satisfied that for the purpose of protecting the interest of revenue, it is necessary so to do.”

Administrator

Congress leader Kapil Sibal said the Bill had sought to amend the Companies Act to facilitate huge corporate funding for the party in power. Under the original Companies Act, Mr. Sibal said, no company could contribute to a political party without being in operation for three years; there was a political funding cap of 7.5% of the net profit of the company; and the board resolution through which the funding was to be done would reflect the name of the beneficiary political party. “It really surprises me that as someone who waxes eloquent about transparency and black money, this government has actually done away with the cap. Any company can contribute any amount of money to any political party. But that is not all. What it has done away is the fact that the political party that the company will fund will not be known to anybody,” Mr. Sibal said. “This is the surest way to ensure that the political party in power gets all the funding that it needs.”